Required reading … in Arabic
by Jura Watchmaker, 6 September 2007
Brian Whitaker writes about an initiative in the Middle East that aims to translate 100 books into Arabic in its first year, and asks which titles we think should be included.
Any suggestions?
I’ll start of with something old and something new:
On liberty - John Stuart Mill
God is not great - Christopher Hitchens
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 10:35
How about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?
Oh, wait… they’re already available in Arabic. Widely.
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 11:00
Harry Potter?
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 12:28
The Collected Works - J Hari
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 12:34
The Art of War
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 14:16
“The Rediscovery of Man”- Cordwainer Smith
Perhaps a book on the sanctity of life might help.
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 15:28
An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Rights of Man, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, The Age of Reason and Three Men In A Boat.
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 17:03
The Death of Ivan Illyich and Slaughterhouse Five
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 19:47
Bernard Crick’s ‘In Defense of Politics’
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 21:20
How about Thomas Cahill’s “The Gift of the Jews”?
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 22:10
Martin Gilbert’s History of Israel
Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man
The Gruffalo
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 22:13
Sigmund Freud “Totem and Taboo”
Alfred Korzybski “Science and Sanity”
Margaret Mead “Coming of Age in Somoa”
Robert Heinlein “Citizen of the Galaxy”
Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson “Illuminatus!”
Margot Adler “Drawing Down the Moon”
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 22:28
Umberto Eco: The Name of the RoseErnest Hemingway: Men without WomenAzar Nafisi: Reading Lolita in TeheranStephen Jay Gould: Bully for BrontosaurusP.J. O’Rourke: Eat the Rich
Thursday 6 September 2007 at 22:42
Can they not get Hitchens on YouTube like?
Friday 7 September 2007 at 0:18
Voltaire Voltaire Voltaire
Friday 7 September 2007 at 1:23
David Landes “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations”
de Zayas “A Terrible Revenge” (No, the Palestinian experience in 1948 was not unique, even for the 40s)
Dostoevsky “The Devils”
Turgenev “Fathers and Sons/Virgin Soil”
Anton Wilson “Illuminatus” (best case scenario they realize paranoid conspiracies are silly but groove to the hippy sex and drugs stuff, worst case they drop the jews and go after mythical Bavarians)
Friday 7 September 2007 at 18:32
pretty much anything by Baruch Spinoza
Saturday 8 September 2007 at 16:08
I shall be predictable and say the SCUM Manifesto and also the collected works of Jackie Collins.
There is a novel out called ‘The Girls of Riyadh’ that is causing absolute havoc in the Middle East as its all about the furtive love lives of the Yoof trying to evade the religious police. The novel as such is relatively rare in Arab literature as the poem still holds dominance.